Plant shelter



May 28, 1968 H. c. HEFFRON PLANT SHELTER Filed July 9, 1964 HOWARD c.HEFFROA/ United States Patent 3,384,992 PLANT SHELTER Howard C. Heifron,Chicago, Ill., assignor, by mesne assignments, to G. I. PlasticsCorporation, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of New YorkContinuation-impart of application Ser. No. 226,985,

Sept. 28, 1962. This application July 9, 1964, Ser.

2 Claims. (Cl. 47-49) This invention relates to a shelter for plants toprotect said plants from meteorological elements, and more particularlyto portable shelters for plants including young bushes annd shrubs forprotecting said plants from wind, rain, snow, frost, and suddentemperature changes, and for promoting early growth in the early springor growing season.

This application is a continuation in part of my copending application,Se-r. No. 226,985, filed Sept. 28, 1962, for-Shelter for Plants which isnow abandoned.

A large number of perennial plants and some annual plants are damaged bydrying out or alternately freezing and thawing due to exposure to theaction of wind, frost, extreme cold, and sudden temperature changes inthe early spring, late fall and winter. The most commonly recognizedperennial plants severely damaged by exposure to these elements are thevarious species of roses. However, there are numerous other perennial,biennial and annual plants which are damaged by such exposure, forexample, cultivated figs, hydrages and Viburnum, to name a few.

In the past, protection against exposure in winter, early spring, andlate fall has been accomplished by munching with materials such asslough hay, hay, straw, sawdust, coco mulch, peat moss, soil, and thelike. All of these munching materials have disadvantages which makemunching undesirable. For example, mulches such as soil, hay, etc. oftencarry weed seeds, which are protected by the munch and germinate in thespring providing weeds which must be removed to protect the desiredplant. Another disadvantage of these materials is that they areunsightly and are often blown away or spread into other areas by wind orrain. A further disadvantage is that the removal of the mulch after useis accomplished only with difficulty and expense. A still furtherdisadvantage of these mulches is that they can only be used for onereason since they are often too scattered to be collected for reuse orthey deteriorate with time or exposure to wind and moisture. Anotherdisadvantage -is that these mulches provide an excellent place for thenesting and feeding of mice and other rodents, which often causeconsiderable injury to the plant being protected. When soil is used as amulch, excessive moisture in the soil can cause the plant to rot and bedamaged thereby. Limited application of straw or hay mulches is oftenuneconomical since straw and hay is usually obtainable commercially onlyin bales, necessitating excessive waste.

Transparent or translucent covers are commonly used to protectindividual or a group of young plants; these being made of glass orother materials. Such shelters admit sun rays which heat the air and thesoil within the shelter. The disadvantage with these arrangements isthat the heat of the air within the shelter caused by the sun is quicklydissipated and replaced by cold at night or during a dark period of theday. This might result in the freezing of the plant.

Foam plastic encased in concrete has been employed in the past as plantshelters. This appears to be an improvement over the common munchingmaterial, but as is the case with the glass covers the heat obtainedfrom 3,384,992 Patented May 28, 1968 the sun is quickly dissipatedduring dark periods and offers very little protection from suddentemperature changes.

A disadvantage of the usual plant shelters is that they do notadequately provide for the dissipating of the ex cess moisture whichmight accumulate on a bud or a new growth of a plant. During a freezeperiod, such excess moisture could kill the bud or new growth and alsopossibly split that part of the plant.

Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a shelter forplants which will protect the plant from wind, cold, frost, snow andother meteorological elements.

It is another object of this invention to provide a shelter for plantswhich is portable and does not deteriorate from the ravages of wind,snow and rain.

A feature of the invention is to provide a shelter having very little(or a slow rate of) heat transfer from inside the shelter to theout-side.

Another feature of the invention is to dissipate excess moisture frombuds or growing parts of the plant so that a frost will not cause alayer of ice on said buds or parts.

Another feature of the invention is to radiate light rays through theshelter material and thereby permitting the photosynthesis process totake place in an atmosphere within the shelter which is conducive togrowth.

According to an embodiment of the invention described hereafter, theshelter comprises a hollow housing having a substantially cone shapedbody, a circular bottom with an opening leading into the hollow insideand a dome top. The shelter being so constructed as to admittherethrough rays of the sun to heat the air within the hollow portionand to permit photosynthesis of the plant to take place. The shelter isfurther characterized by a slow rate of heat transfer from the innersurface to the outer surface of the shelter, threby insulating theplants with the air within the hollow portion.

Other objects and features and a fuller understanding of the inventionmay be had by referring to the following description, taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of the ground on which ashelter of an embodiment of the present invention is placed.

FIG. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of the ground on which ashelter of another embodiment of the present invention is placed.

FIG. 4 is a section on the line 44 of FIG. 3.

In general, the device of the present invention comprises a hollowtubular structure or housing formed of cellular material such asexpanded plastic or polystyrene foam closed at one end which comprisesthe upper end of the device; the opposed or lower end being open andprovided with a flange which may be secured by suitable means to thesoil.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 in which is illustrated an embodiment ofthe invention wherein the plant shelter comprises a hollow conicaldevice suitably in the form of a frusturn of a cone of polystyrene foam10 open at the bottom and closed at the top. The top closure 11 ispreferably a disc of expanded polystyrene foam also, and suitably anintegral part of the frustum or wall 10 and formed therewith as bymolding. An annular flange 12 extends outwardly and horizontally fromthe bottom edge 13 of the wall 10. The flange 12 is also preferablyconstructed of polystyrene foam and most preferably formed as anintegral part of the frustum 10.

Additionally, a plurality of apertures 14 can be obliquely positionedpreferably in the upper half of the wall 10 with the higher opening 15of the apertures 14 in the inside surface of the conical wall of frustum10, and the lower opening 16 of the apertures 14 in the outside surfaceof the conical wall of frustum 10. These apertures 14 are obliquelypositioned in the upper half of the conical Wall to prevent rain andcondensed moisture from flowing into the shelter through apertures 14,and to prevent wind from blowing directly into the shelter through thesaid apertures. The apertures are positioned to be in proximity of budsor newly grown parts of the plant for dissipating excess moisture and toprevent thereby the killing or breaking off of said buds or parts in theevent the plant is subjected to a frost.

With reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the drawings show anotherembodiment of the invention. The plant shelter comprises a substantiallyconical wall structure 20 of polystyrene foam open at the bottom andclosed at the top. The top closure 21 is preferably a dome shape ofpolystyrene foam and integrally a part of the wall 20. A substantiallysquare flange 22 extends outwardly and horizontally from the bottom edge13 of the wall 20. The flange 22 is also preferably constructed ofpolystyrene foam and most preferably formed as an integral part of thewall 29. The flange being substantially square extends out further fromthe bottom edge at four places and thereby provides at such placesconvenient locations for the anchoring of the shelter to the soil.

In the usual application of the shelters of the present invention andwith reference, for example, to FIG. 1, and FIG. 2, the plant 9 ispruned, as normally required by the plants to survive the winter season,and the open end 13 of the shelter is placed over the plant. Foreffective application, the bottom edge 13 and flange 12 should be inintimate contact with the ground 8. If such contact is not accomplishedby the placing of the shelter on the ground, the soil can be smoothed orfilled as required. The shelter is then anchored to the ground bysuitable means, for example such as by a plurality of rocks or largestones 17 placed on flange 12 and if desired partially resting on theground. The shelter can also be anchored by a plurality of spokes orscrews (not shown) driven through flange 12 and into the ground.

Cellular material such as expanded plastic or in particular polystyrenefoam provides little or very small heat transfer by means of conductionfrom its inner surface to its outside surface. Therefore, a plantcovered by such material is protected from sudden temperature changesfrom the outside. When such material is thin in thickness, it istranslucent and thereby admits radiant energy and in particular lightrays. On the other hand, increasing the thickness of the material couldcause such material to become opaque or substantially less translucentand thereby more impervious to radiant energy. However, with theincreased thickness, heat transfer by conduction is correspondinglydecreased. Therefore, by having the entire cellular material of theshelter opaque, by increasing the thickness, less heat conduction wouldoccur than if such shelter were partially opaque and partiallytranslucent or entirely translucent.

The shelters or embodiments of the invention were used in the winter andwere extremely successful in eliminating dead shrubs due to the cold andthe other harmful elements of nature.

Shrubs and plants which were covered by the shelters during the springor early part of the growing season had substantially more foliage thanthe uncovered plants. Comparative tests showed that sheltered roseplants were approximately six weeks ahead of unsheltered rose plants. Itis noted, that the growth of the plants took place even though therewere no openings extending through the shelter walls from the outsidesurface to the inner surface. Such a shelter is illustrated in theembodiment of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4.

Based upon the foregoing successful usage of the shelters, the followingtheory is advanced. When the shelter structure is composed of atranslucent expanded plastic as polystyrene foam, it transmits sunlightwhich heats the air inside the shelter by radiation and also permits theprocess of photosynthesis to take place during the growing season. Theexpanded plastic having superior insulating qualities provides little orat least substantially slow heat transfer from inside the shelter to theoutside. Any heat which is lost by conduction during the night or darkperiods of the day is subsequently replenished by radiant energy whenlight appears. In this manner, a warm pocket of air is almostcontinually present to protect the plant from sudden weather changes.This warm air acting in conjunction with light being transmitted throughthe shelter appears quite conducive to plant growth during andimmediately before the growing season.

As was stated above, growth of the plant took place within the shelterwithout having ventillating holes included therein. Apparently, enoughair is getting through the shelter to satisfy the requirement of plantgrowth.

The shelter of the present invention protects the plant from rain, wind,snow and frost by physically covering the exposed portions of the plantand by being impervious to such elements. In addition, the shelterprovides insulation against sudden increases and decreases intemperature. The shelter of this invention is relatively permanent inthat it will not scatter or blow away, and is economical in that it canbe reused since it is not deteriorated by the action of rain, wind andsnow.

While the present invention has been described with respect toparticular embodiments, this description is intended in no way to limitthe scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A shelter device for protecting plants in the earth from cold, wind,and sudden temperature changes of the air comprising:

a hollow frusto conical shaped housing formed from polystyrene foammaterial, said housing having an open bottom end of circular shape and atop section including a circular top end, said circular bottom end beinglarger cross-sectional area than said circular top end, the material ofsaid housing being of substantial thickness to afford an outside surfaceand an inner surface;

an annular flange integrally formed to said bottom end for contactingsaid ground and extending horizontally outward therefrom;

said polystyrene foam material characterized by its ability to admitradiant energy therethrough for heating the air inside said housing andto provide by conduction a substantially slow rate of heat transfer fromsaid inner surface to said outer surface, thereby insulating said plantsand the air within said housing from the outer atmosphere; and

said top section including apertures extending obliquely through saidstructure in a downward direction from said inner surface to said outersurface for preventing unwanted water and winds from enteringtherethrough.

2. A shelter device for protecting plants in the earth from cold, wind,and sudden temperature changes of the air comprising:

a hollow housing having an open bottom end circular in shape, the topend of said housing being dome shaped, said housing increasing indiameter from said top end to said bottom end, the material of saidhousing being of substantial thickness to afford an outside surface andan inner surface;

a substantially square flange integrally formed to said bottom end andextending outward from said bottom end for contacting said earth and foranchoring said flange to said earth; and

said material being constructed of polystyrene foam to admit radiantenergy from said outside surface to said inner surface for heating theair inside said housing and to provide a substantially slow rate of heattransfer from said inner surface to said outside surface so 5 6 thatsaid plants and the air within the housing are FOREIGN PATENTS insulatedfrom the outer atmosphere. 1,137,129 1/ 1957 France.

References Cited 59,521 4/1957 India.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 OTHER REFERENCES 561,824 6/1896 SiskrOn 47 9Koppers Expandable Polystyrene, 1954, Koppers Co., 1,432,339 10/1922101168 47-- Inc (p 5, 7 and 16), 1,814,339 7/1931 Sa'to 47-29 1,910,8285/1933 Flanders 4728 ROBERT E. BAGWILL, Primary Examiner. 1,930,93910/1933 Homer. 10 1 1,940,020 12/1933 Schnindler 47 -29 GRAHAM CRAVERANTONIA 2,691,848 10/1954 Arena.

3,218,759 11/1965 Barrens 4730 R. L. HOLLISTER, F. B. HENRY, AssistantExaminers.

1. A SHELTER DEVICE FOR PROTECTING PLANTS IN THE EARTH FROM COLD, WIND,AND SUDDEN TEMPERATURE CHANGES OF THE AIR COMPRISING: A HOLLOW FRUSTOCONICAL SHAPED HOUSING FORMED FROM POLYSTYRENE FOAM MATERIAL, SAIDHOUSING HAVING AN OPEN BOTTOM END OF CIRCULAR SHAPE AND A TOP SECTIONINCLUDING A CIRCULAR TOP END, SAID CIRCULAR BOTTOM END BEING LARGERCROSS-SECTIONAL AREA THAN SAID CIRCULAR TOP END, THE MATERIAL OF SAIDHOUSING BEING OF SUBSTANTIAL THICKNESS TO AFFORD AN OUTSIDE SURFACE ANDAN INNER SURFACE; AN ANNULAR FLANGE INTEGRALLY FORMED TO SAID BOTTOM ENDFOR CONTACTING SAID GROUND AND EXTENDING HORIZONTALLY OUTWARD THEREFROM;SAID POLYSTYRENE FOAM MATERIAL CHARACTERIZED BY ITS ABILITY TO ADMITRADIANT ENERGY THERETHROUGH FOR HEATING THE AIR INSIDE SAID HOUSING ANDTO PROVIDE BY CON-